Boylan shoots for state: 'Good things are going to happen'

Matt Trowbridge Staff writer @matttrowbridge

Tuesday

Nov 14, 2017 at 7:04 PMNov 14, 2017 at 10:50 PM

Boylan was supposed to be good last year.

Instead, the Titans were great.

Picked to finish second behind six-time defending champion Hononegah, the Titans not only won their eighth NIC-10 title, and second in 14 years, but they did so with a perfect 16-0 conference mark. That tied the 1990 Boylan team as the only Titans girls basketball team to ever go undefeated in conference play. They also won their seventh sectional title, but fell one game short of the Class 4A state semifinals.

Now, with four starters remaining, the question is whether Boylan can go at least one step further than last year and join that 1990 team as the only girls basketball state qualifier in school history.

"The only question we're going to have is rebounding," coach Paul Perrone said. "We lost two 6-footers. We're going to be a smaller team with no one taller than 5-11, but we're very quick and very deep off the bench."

And very used to tournament pressure.

"The kids really enjoyed it last year," Perrone said. "The deeper you go into the state tournament, the noisier it gets and the gyms get full. It's exciting for the kids to experience that. The hope is the experience of playing in the Elite 8 gives them more confidence and makes them hungrier to try to achieve even more.

"We always say at Boylan that the target on our back is big no matter where we're at because we're Boylan and successful in all sports. But our success last year made the target even bigger. The girls have to step up and be focused every game."

Senior guard/forward McKenzie Brown (13.6 points, 3.9 assists, 3.0 steals last year) is the only statistical standout on the Titans, but they have balance everywhere. Even on the bench.

"We can easily play 12 girls without missing a beat; that's how deep we are," Perrone said.

Peyton Kennedy may be Boylan's biggest inside force. The 5-11 sophomore was the first freshman to start for Boylan in a couple of decades.

"Her shooting, especially from the 15-foot range, has improved immensely," Perrone said, "and her inside post moves have improved. Coming from eighth grade to a freshman, one more year makes a heck of a difference."

Two other Titans, Ashley Reyes and Frankie Schiro, started as sophomores last year. The fact that Boylan did so much as such a young team makes dreams of state seem very real for a team that graduated only center Sarah Welsh and top reserve Bridget Bishop, both 6-footers.

"This is the smallest team I've had in years," Perrone said. "It's a challenge and a test for me to see if we can use our quickness to offset our lack of height.

"But good things are going to happen. We've got 3-point shooters this year who can nail them. We can be versatile. We can play zone or play man, and play an offense that's post-oriented or an offense that is perimeter oriented. We can adapt to almost any situation.

"People are expecting a lot of us, but it's a new year. We can't rely on what we did last year. We have to prove ourselves."

Outlook: Boylan returns most of its players from a team that ended Hononegah’s six-year reign as conference champ last year and won sectionals. The Titans could be contenders to reach state, but Hononegah should pose a stiff challenge in the NIC-10.

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